Walking past the various churches and cathedrals around him without even admiring the symmetry like he used to, Jinki walked with purpose towards the tomb that acted as a front for his coven. Sometimes, it felt really strange to see the world changing so much around them that it was almost like evolution itself. Using their spells, the witches were able to age much slower than the average human. A hundred years in human life was equivalent to about two years for them, and they had to work hard to seem as though they were human, too.

“The meeting will now come to order”

“Do we have any new members?”

“None, it’s just the four of us”

The dejected expression on the leader’s face echoed the mood of all the members. Off late, they had been losing more and more members to old age. Since their witches had started to marry humans, the lineage had almost been lost. Powers were hereditary, and most of the new children ended up being entirely human. It was very difficult to find other witches, to continue the coven. Jinki was the only one from his family who possessed powers, and since he was an only child, it meant that he’d be the last one in his family to be a witch.

“Jinki, since you are the youngest member, it will be your duty to find others like us”

“Yes, sire”

As his leader his long white beard thoughtfully, Jinki adjusted his blood-red velvet cape and nodded as he accepted the order that had been given to him. This was certainly not easy. As Jinki looked around the meeting spot of their coven, a cave with a table made of bones, he noted the many cobwebs and sighed. It had really been a long time since the cave got the cleaning it deserved. As he bowed and left, Jinki wondered where on Earth he would be able to find another witch. It couldn’t just be a half-witch, but someone of a pure bloodline. The purer the bloodline, the stronger their powers. Being the son of a clairvoyant and a warlock, Jinki was one of the most powerful witches in the country. His offspring, whether his partner was magical or not, would possess clairvoyance, even if they had nothing else.

The worst part of having two powerful parents was the fact that both powers couldn’t be used together. If only he could just gaze into a crystal ball like his mother, Jinki would be able to see the face of all the witches he could bring with him to bring their coven back to the way it used to be. All he could get was a sudden vision sometimes, or some really powerful dreams which turned into reality. The easy choice was to visit his family and just ask his mother for the answers he needed, but that would just count as weakness, which Jinki wanted to avoid at any cost. At his age, he was too proud to ask anyone for help, including his clairvoyant mother. Instead, he tried hard to think only about the coven before bed, so that he could get any kind of hint in his dream, that he could use. In his dream, Jinki saw himself at a normal convenience store, frequented by humans. In front of him was a dark-haired woman who was calmly filling her trolley. She looked very normal, and Jinki awoke instantly, having figured out that she must be the witch he had to find. Unfortunately, he had only seen the woman and the convenience store he would find her at, but he didn’t know when he should expect to find her. After noting down his dream in the blue notebook he kept on his dresser, beside his bed, Jinki drifted back to sleep. This time, the dream was a continuation of the previous one where he had seen the supposed witch, but this time the focus was on the man in front of her. With hair so fair that it almost looked white, and clad in the mortal’s fashion of a black leather jacket and jeans, this man exuded power. The woman might have some hereditary powers, but the man was the one their coven needed. The one Jinki needed.

The next morning, Jinki, who still remembered every detail of the man’s face, decided to start his search. It was fairly easy to find the exact store where he needed to be, as the area was exactly similar to his dream, even down to the abandoned salon next to it. Pretending to survey all of the available products, he wandered around the store while secretly looking for the man in his dream. Having waited for hours, Jinki was forced to purchase a box of cookies that he didn’t even like, just to prove that he wasn’t some kind of thief. As he was ready to leave, he spotted someone who looked vaguely familiar to him, but what was the leader of their coven doing in a place like this? Gingerly approaching the leader, Jinki bowed hastily before anyone could notice them.

“Sire, is something wrong?”

“No, I was just curious about the man you found. The one whom you’ll marry”

“What? I beg your pardon, but what do you mean?”

Laughing at the horrified expression on Jinki’s face, the wise leader rubbed his chin thoughtfully before answering,

“My boy, you forget that mind reading is a power that I possess. Regarding your marriage...think nothing of it, it was just a simple thought I had”

“I haven’t found him yet, but when I do, I’ll convince him to join us”

As he bid adieu to his leader, Jinki kept thinking about what had been said. Marriage. Would he really marry the man he saw? He didn’t even know his name, and now he was ‘destined’ to marry him? That was just crazy of anyone to assume something like that, and so far there was no sign of the white-blonde haired man. On his way back home, he spotted something from the corner of his eye, a flash of white-blonde and before he could do anything, whatever he saw just disappeared into thin air.

That night, his dream was something he had never expected. He saw himself once again, sitting by the man, except this time, they were at a coffee shop. Jinki stood up to collect their orders and smiled at their names on the cups, before sitting down. Sitting up in bed with a jolt, Jinki realized that he now knew the witch’s name. Jonghyun.

How hard would it be to find someone whose name he already knew? For the first time in years, Jinki decided to perform a spell that would make his work easier. Taking out his crystal ball and placing it within the patterns he drew, Jinki uttered an incantation. As the crystal ball started to fill with white smoke, Jinki took a deep breath and uttered the words that would change his life forever.

“Show me where Jonghyun is, right now”

The smoke cleared to show Jonghyun inside a bank vault, filled with money. Wide-eyed, Jinki watched as Jonghyun filled two sacks full of all the bills they could carry. Smiling, Jonghyun disappeared in a second and reappeared in what looked like his lair. A bank robber? Why would the coven even want someone as despicable as a thief? A thief with the power of teleportation who would most certainly bring ruin to all those around him. The more he gazed into the crystal ball, the more annoyed Jinki became. Determined to find this person and give him a good piece of his mind, he spoke into the ball and tried to see more about Jonghyun.

“Show me Jonghyun’s history”

Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that the spell only lasted for a certain time, and with a puff of smoke, the crystal ball went blank. It was no use in trying again, as Jinki was exhausted, but he knew the truth. People always said that the truth would set you free, but Jonghyun was going to learn the lesson of his lifetime. There were a lot of options that he could use to stop the thief, but the most effective one was a binding spell. Once bound, the victim couldn’t cast spells for a certain time. There was also an option by which the caster could determine what kind of spells the victim could be able to cast. Since Jinki came from one of the oldest magical families, any spell he cast would prove to be a hundred times more effective than if it had been cast by a novice.